Our own luxury brand

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FINO LEATHERWARE was ahead of the game of Filipino cool when it started back in 1992 — that’s a total of 33 years in the industry, manufacturing bags and leather goods that, frankly, can hold their own next to the chicest bags Europe can offer.

The brand is distilling more years of cool to come with an anniversary offering of its 10-year-old Artisan collection, which then and now featured crumpled leather bags, now in new shapes and colors. Up until June 30, the store will feature the works of local hatmakers from Lucban (for sale), as well as the works of model-turned-photographer-turned-designer Jo Ann Bitagcol (for display only) in an exhibit called Hats Off.

In an interview on June 20 at their Rockwell store, Rose Ann Bautista, vice-president for marketing and retail operations for Fino, which she co-founded with then-boyfriend and now husband Rommel, commented about the hats, made with materials that come from Bicol and Bohol; among others. “The industry is having a problem,” she said, agreeing that no one wears hats anymore, an odd situation “When in fact, we’re in a tropical country” where hat wearing makes sense.

Of the collaboration with Ms. Bitagcol, she said, “Jo Ann’s connection to us was because she was our model 10 years ago. We saw her craft grow as well, from being a model, to being a photographer — she was also our photographer for some collections — and now, a full-blown designer.

“It’s more of celebrating all these skills and artistry, that really, we need to be proud of,” said Ms. Bautista.

She pointed at their bags, for example: “When they do the leather, they literally crumple it, and try to dye it that way.” The leather is from Italy, but made by their artisans in a factory, then in Malabon, now in Caloocan, due to their family’s roots in both places. “We made sure that we were trying to get people from our hometown,” she said. The oldest employee on their roster has been there since they were founded: “Craft is not easy. Investing in people with passion, with the same interests, with wanting to do what we want to achieve, which is the fineness of creating a piece: that takes time as well.”

Despite being almost all local, she explained why they use foreign leather instead of local options: “The type of leather that we’re trying to look for, is I guess, a certain type that’s not available locally. Sometimes, what you find here can be very tough, very thick, and the finishings are limited.

“Definitely, we try to use local leather. But there are specializations. Italian leather will have a certain Italian finish; a French calf, which is what we have as well, has a certain fineness,” she said. Asked what can be done for the local leather to achieve the finesse they look for, she said, “A lot of collaboration from the industries.”

When Fino began in the 1990s, Filipinos were ga-ga for the foreign. What was available in the local market were simply copies of the works of designers abroad. Now, the Filipino aesthetic has reached unprecedented levels of cool and there is a certain pride in telling everyone that what they use was made locally.

“It took 20 years before that happened,” said Ms. Bautista, and now, they’re riding on a wave that they helped start. She recalls why they started: “It was just a hobby — to want something that we can’t get.”

“We couldn’t get anything here!,” she remembers, but then, “Why do we have to go abroad?”

“That was the main reason,” she added. “Ten years after our start, we already wanted to push buying Filipino: to be proud of what you have; what we can do, as Filipinos.”

Speaking about their staying power as a relatively small but expensive brand in that environment, she said with some laughter, “With a lot of luck.”

“A lot of hard work in terms of trying to keep focused on what we want to do,” she said. “It takes time. I feel that if you have a passion for something, just stick to it. If you believe in it, just maybe try to improve every time. That’s what we’re trying to do.

“We’re not a luxury brand abroad. But we are our own luxury.”

The Hats Off display and Artisan Collection are open to the public at Fino, 2^nd floor, Power Plant Mall, Rockwell, Makati City, until June 30.

Follow @finoleatherware.official on Facebook and Instagram for updates. — Joseph L. Garcia